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EBITA

EBITA simply means Earnings Before interest, taxes and amortisation. Investors commonly use this acronym to measure the profitability and efficiency of a company and compare it with companies of similar nature. The term includes all costs associated with the capital assets, i.e. depreciation, by excluding associated financing costs and the amortisation of any intangible assets, making it an accurate metric for measuring a company’s profitability. Further, it can also compare with EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes )and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortisation) to get a better insight into the company’s earnings.

EBITDA

The financial metrics that measure a company’s overall financial health are commonly termed EBITDA or Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization  (EBITDA). Often, EBITDA is used as an alternative to other metrics like revenue, earnings, or net income of a business. This metric excludes all expenses associated with debt and adds back interest expenses and taxes to earnings. It can be used to compare the profitability of different companies and industries since it eliminates the effects of financing and capital expenditure. Further, this metric is also used in the valuation process and can be compared to enterprise value and revenue. Currently, EBITDA is widely used by bankers to estimate the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR), a ratio that is explicitly used for business loans to measure the cash flow and ability to pay. Moreover, analysts and investors use EBITDA to get an idea about the company’s actual earnings, and it gives a picture of the company’s total amount in hand for reinvestment or to make payments as dividends.

Components of EBITDA

• Earnings: It denotes the amount of money that the company brings in over a certain period of time. The amount of earnings can be determined by simply subtracting the operating expenses from the total revenue.  

• Interest: It is simply the cost of servicing a debt. Generally in EBITDA interest is not deducted from eranings. 

• Taxes: As the name says EBITDA stads for Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amorisation. Therefore tax expenses is not accounted while determining the EBITDA value.  

• Depreciation and Amortization: The amount of depreciation and amortization are added back to operating profit to arrive at EBITDA.

What is a good EBDITA?

An EBITDA with a 10% or more margin is generally considered good. This can be understood better with the help of an illustration;

While considering two different companies, namely Company A and Company B, with their EBITDA of $600,000, total revenue of $6,000,000 and an EBITDA of $ 750,000 and total revenue of $9,000,000, respectively. And this indicates that B company demonstrates a higher EBITDA than A company. (8% against 10%). And looking at this data, company B might appear more promising to a potential investor.

FORMULA AND CALCULATION

Usually, EBITDA is calculated by using two formulas, i.e.;

 EBITDA = Net income + Taxes + Interest expense + Depreciation & Amortization

Or

EBITDA = Operating Income + Depreciation & Amortization

EBITDA is estimated by straight forward method simply by considering the information provided in the company’s income statement and balance sheet. The first formula uses the net income to calculate EBITDA by adding back interest and tax expenses. In the second formula operating income is calculated by subtracting daily operating expenses. This method helps the investors to get an idea about the exact earnings of the company by excluding interest and taxes. But it should be noted that EBITDA calculations via two different formulas will provide you with two different results since net income includes line items that might not be included in operating income, such as non-operating income or one time-expenses.

USE CASES OF EBITDA

• EBITDA represents the cash flow and gives a quick overview of the total value of a company. Thereby helping the investors to understand whether a company is making a profit or not. Moreover, most private equity firms use these metrics to compare similar companies in a particular industry to understand a company’s performance compared to its competitors.

• EBITDA is commonly used in valuation and helps stakeholders, especially investors, understand whether a company is overvalued or undervalued. And such comparisons are essential as different industries exhibit different average ratios. It also reveals the operating profitability of the business. Thus, EBITDA helps investors know the company’s net income even before interest, taxes, or depreciation is accounted for. 

• In some cases, EBITDA is very similar to the PE ratio (Price-to-Earnings). But compared to the PE ratio, EBITDA is neutral to capital structure and lowers the risk factors associated with capital investments and other financing variables.

• EBITDA is often used in financial modelling to calculate un-levered free cash flow.

EBITDA MARGIN AND HOW TO INTERPRET IT?

The EBITDA margin is a profitability ratio that measures a company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation as a percentage of its total revenue. And there are mainly two types of EBITDA- Higher EBITDA margin and Lower EBITDA margin. A higher EBITDA margin is considered more favourable because companies with higher EBITDA margins produce a higher profit. 

• Higher EBITDA margin: Higher EBITDA margin is considered more favourable because companies with higher EBITDA margins are producing a higher amount of profit. 

•Lower EBITDA margin: Lower EBITDA margin implies the presence of an underlying weakness in the company’s business model, like ineffectiveness in sales & marketing, targeting the wrong market, etc.

STEPS TO CALCULATE THE EDIBITA MARGIN

The following steps should be followed to arrive at the EBITDA margin;

  1. To begin with, the revenue, cost of goods sold (COGS), and operating expense from the income statement are gathered.
  2. Then consider the depreciation and amortisation (D&A) from the cash flow statement and any other non-cash add-backs. 
  3. Determine the operating income by subtracting COGS and operating expenses and adding back D & A.
  4. Finally, divide the EBITDA value by the corresponding revenue figure, and the resulting figure is your EBITDA margin for each company.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO CALCULATE THE EBITDA MARGIN?

Calculating EBITDA margin helps companies to;

• Compare against its historical results, i.e., the previous model’s profitability trends.

• It helps to compare a company’s performance with competitors in similar industries or relatively similar industries.

IS EBITDA THE SAME AS GROSS PROFIT?

Gross profit and EBITDA are not the same. Gross profit denotes the amount of profit a company makes after subtracting the cost associated with making its product or offering its services to its customers. In contrast, EBITDA shows a company’s profitability after deducting interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation. Thus EBITDA and gross profit are not the same since it measures the company’s profitability by exempting different items or cost.

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A business plan template is a standardised document that helps a business planner to write a detailed business plan. A viable business plan must cover the following topics: introduction, executive summary, company description, and marketing plan. And for writing this, a business planner can use a good business plan template to create a well-organised business plan as per the client’s requirement.

A good business plan template must have the following ten key elements;

  1. Executive summary
  2. Company overview
  3. Industry analysis
  4. Customer analysis
  5. Competitive analysis
  6. Marketing plan
  7. Operations plan
  8. Management team
  9. Financial plan
  10. Appendix

A well-designed business plan not only helps to articulate a strategy for starting a business and to pitch the right kind of investors but also shows the clients that we spend considerable time thinking about the potential issues the business might face and also ask them detailed questions surrounding economics and fundamentals of the client’s business model in order to provide valuable suggestions and feedbacks. Thus it’s understood that a well-written business plan is critical for any startup in the event of fundraising.

 While writing a one-pager is almost a layman’s cup of tea, but when it comes to technical writing, it requires deeper knowledge about the subject and needs to follow a specific writing format. A good content writer must essentially be a good wordsmith. Content writing is definitely not a layman thing; it demands good writing skills to achieve required goals and to influence the target audience. While understanding the target audience is essential for all types of writing, but things might be different when it comes to technical writing. And influencing the target audience is never an easy task. Because knowing your audience determines what information you present, how you present it, and also how you structure your entire writing. The possible audience for a business plan might be micro Venture Capitalists and HNIs (High net-worth individuals). Currently, startups in our country are highly in need of qualified technical wordsmiths for them to pitch the kind of investors. And Scaalex, as a team of highly driven domain experts, takes no chance to compromise on the quality of our deliverables. Till now we have closely worked with 270+ startups by helping them in the event of fundraising. As domain experts, we stand out for in-depth market research, thereby helping the new entrepreneurs in designing a good business plan. If you think you are one among the startups who lack adequate market insights, we are here to attain you with exceptional execution and fundraising results.

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What is Business Plan

A business plan is a standardised written document outlining the company’s organisational, financial, and operating framework. A good business plan gives potential investors the right insights into the company’s current state and how it becomes an investment opportunity in the future. A good business plan is a prerequisite for any startup to begin with and to attract more investors. In short, a business plan conveys the business goals, both short-term and long-term, strategies used to achieve this goal, the problems and the competition that a business might face and ways to overcome them, the overall organisational structure, marketing and positioning strategy and the amount of fund required by the company to sustain for a long run.

For most startups business plan serves as a dual-purpose document used internally and externally.

Importance of a business plan

  • • To set KPIs and benchmarks: Having a good business plan helps the company frame its goals and benchmarks more precisely by aligning with its long-term vision and strategy.
  • • Decision Making: A viable business plan help entrepreneurs to make critical decisions regarding its core strategies and helps them understand how those decisions will impact the overall business.
  • • Roadmap Planning: A good business plan describes what the business intends to be doing overtime through a detailed description of the customer, market, competitors, and current and future strategies.
  • • Funding: Prospective investors and banks require the startups to prepare a detailed business plan for them to understand and decide whether the business has the potential to earn profits in the long run or not.
  • • Partnership and alliances: A good business plan also helps in the smooth execution of the planned business models and enter into collaboration with the desired partners by explaining to them the roles and future vision of the company.

Types of business plan

  • • Standard Business Plan: Standard business plan covers details like the mission, vision, financial statistics and the target audience, which is usually comprehensible for all parties like products vendors, VCs and investors, finance firms or even internal business members. One of the actual merits of this kind of business plan is that it describes the expenses in detail along with the information regarding profit and loss, cash flow and projected balance sheet.
  • • Growth Business Plan: A growth plan gives insights into the proposed strategy, execution mechanism, various parameters and metrics to aid assessment and the necessary statistics and numbers. A well-defined strategy finds solutions to the identified problem, the target audience and how to approach them. Whereas an execution plan states the methodology to implement the strategy by elaborating each step of the process in detail. Metrics measure the current performance against the set benchmarks. Finally, the plan also includes reliable statistics, charts and tables to convince the investors of the projected growth.
  • • Lean Business Plan: Lean plan is an optimised version of a standardised business plan and shares similarities with a growth plan. This kind of plan usually includes components like;
  • • Strategy: This phase states what the company wants to achieve and how it will achieve it. Working in line with sound strategy helps the management from unnecessary waste of time and effort.
  • • Tactics: Tactics are measures taken to make the strategy result in maximum efficiency
  • • Assumptions, metrics and schedule: Assumptions without benchmarks are meaningless. And benchmark comes through the use of established milestones and metrics. Further, to ensure that things go as planned, it’s essential to follow the proper schedule.
  • • Forecast: Financial forecast relating to sales, revenue and expenditures must be entirely accurate. And making basic predictions plays a crucial role in adding credibility to the business plan.
  • • Reviewing: Once the business plan is completed, quality time be invested in reviewing the documents. There should be 3-4 rounds of iterations required to increase the efficiency of the business plan.
  • • Internal Business Plan: Internal plan is similar to a lean strategy, but it delivers results within the organisation. It is not made available to investors or any other external entity; it is specific to the employees.
  • • Operations Business Plan: This kind of plan defines the company’s annual operations by mentioning the deadlines and requirements for the financial year. Operations plans also highlight the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and KPAs (Key Performance Area) for employee evaluation, along with the milestones to be achieved.
  • • Feasibility Business Plan: As the name suggests, it determines whether the proposed product or service will be feasible or not in the future. It also determines the potential investors, intended demographics and the recommendations required for the business to be ongoing.
  • • OnePage Business Plan: A one-page business plan will be concise, defining the milestones, objectives, and actual numbers summarised within a page.
  • • Strategic Business Plan: The strategic plan overlooks the financial description and focuses more on the strategy and tactics to achieve the objectives.
  • • Contingency Business Plan: The contingency plan details the alternate course of action if the primary strategy fails because the probability of facing a loss is the same, just as the chance of being profitable.
  • • Startup Business Plan: Often considered as a version of the lean plan, a startup plan is prepared by new businesses to attract VCs and investors.

Essentials of a good business plan

A business plan is essential for attracting investors and fundraising, but it also helps companies articulate their mission vision and plot their growth trajectory. As such, a business plan cannot be just a bulleted list; it needs to be a serious business document with the following size elements:

  • • Executive summary: Executive summary should contain a brief overview of the entire business plan. This section is critical in a business plan because it decides whether the stakeholders will continue reading the project or not. It gives a brief overview of the business idea, the target market, goals, competition, USP, the overall team and the financial outlook for the business.
  • • Company Description & Synopsis: This part of the business plan explains the company’s mission, philosophy, goals, industry and its legal structure, USP, i.e. the problem the company is solving for its customers and the solution which makes it stand out of the competition.
  • • Market Overview: This section explains the current market scenario of the whole industry, covering aspects like the size of the market, trends, customers needs, competitor details Etc. with reliable facts and figures needed to substantiate the overall market scenario.
  • • Customer Analysis: Customer analysis gives details regarding customers like customer demographics, geographics, psychographics, needs, wants, desires and buying habits Etc.
  • • Product/Service Overview: This section gives a detailed overview of the product and services offered by the company.
  • • Business Model: The business model gives an overview of how the company approach the market and how the approach is viable.
  • • Revenue Model: It explains how the company is planning to make revenue through its business model by stating the expenses and revenue sources.
  • • Competitive Analysis: It explains who are the competitors and their USPs and the strategies used by the company to tackle the competition.
  • • Marketing Plan: This part explains how the company uses the above details in formulating and executing the marketing strategies. This part is crucial since it describes how the company plans to reach out to its customers and stand out from the competitors.
  • • Management Team: Gives details of all board members, their qualifications, experience, and designations.
  • • Funding & financials: It is the final and the essential part of a business plan, especially for startups, since it states the cost of the execution of the business plan. It also includes all short-term and long-term financial requirements, funding goals, and how the investors can help the company achieve them.

How does Scaalex come into the picture?

Most startups fail to raise funds from investors because new entrepreneurs don’t know how to execute the right numbers in financial models to validate that they are worth investing. Further, they are destined to struggle without proper market research, financial plan, business model and so on.

Scaalex is a team of highly driven domain experts and financial consultants. We closely worked with 270+ startups to build the financial projections, valuation report, business plan, and funding advisory. We stand for an expert team in-depth market search and also understand the expectations of new entrepreneurs. If you are one among the startups who lack adequate financial insights, reach out to us to attain exceptional execution and fundraising results!

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Online payments have become a part of our daily lives in no time. A payment gateway is a software that authorizes you to conduct an online transaction through different payment modes like debit card, credit card, UPI, net banking. It acts as a middleman between the customer and merchant, ensuring that confidential information such as credit card numbers entered on an e-commerce website is passed securely and promptly from the customer to the acquiring bank via the merchant. A payment gateway service can be provided by banks directly or a payment service provider authorized by a bank. It manages fraud and protects merchants from insufficient funds, expired cards, exceeding credit limits. The key players involved in the payment process includes the following:

  • Merchant: Merchant sells goods and services to the customers.
  • Customer: A customer or cardholder accesses the product or service offered by the merchant.
  • Issuing bank: Issuing bank is the customer’s bank that issues debit or credit on behalf of card schemes (visa or MasterCard).
  • Acquirer(Acquiring bank): It is the financial institution that maintains the merchant’s bank account.

1. Instamojo:

Instamojo is one of the most significant on-demand payments, and user-friendly dashboards started in 2012. It is a free payment gateway in India with no maintenance cost. It is super easy to set up for startups to sell and collect payments online across mobile and web without the requirement of any physical network. Any seller with a bank account can register at Instamojo and start selling digital goods and get paid. The bank account, phone number, and PAN card remain the only requirements. It reduces the gap between buyer and seller, thereby helping startups to find the right customers. You can download the Instamojo app via the play store on your android devices.

2. CC Avenue:

CC Avenue is one of the best payment gateways because it supports almost all banks and payment options. The company started in 2001, allowing customers to use major credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, Amex. It has 200 +  payment options like Analytics, Audit, Multiple Currency Processing. It’s highly reliable, comes inbuilt with a dashboard and real-time analytics. With CC Avenue, you can get admission to services in the leading worldwide marketplace as it supports 27 major currencies. High-volume E-Commerce websites like Snapdeal, Myntra, Naukri uses it.

3. PayU:

PayU is fast to set up, allows you to upload documents directly onto their site for the verification process, and you can go live exceptionally quickly. When it comes to PayU, you will be offered different pricing packages. Each package has other characteristics such as store card features, IVR payment, Multi-currency gateway, payment analytics. PayU India rebranded both its products-PayU enterprise and PayU money to establish them as transparent independent businesses. Now, PayUbiz is used by large companies such as Snapdeal. PayUMoney is designed for small businesses and startups and comes with a wallet service, email invoice feature, a free website, and doesn’t require any technical knowledge. The platform is integrated with some of the top e-commerce players of the country, like Snapdeal and Jabong. 

4. DirecPay:

DirecPay is one of the most integrated payment gateways having simple registration and multiple payment options. It enables accepting payments through cash, cheques, demand draft, and online payments through different payment modes such as debit cards, credit cards, and internet banking. Our services offered Indian merchants access to this platform quickly and conveniently who conducted online business and contributed to a massive market for retailers desiring to sell online. Mainly, PolicyBazaar, Indiatimes, Google India, Paytm uses DirecPay.

5. Cashfree:

Cashfree is one of the cheapest payment gateways. It supports businesses to collect and distribute payments through different payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, Rupay, UPI, IMPS, NEFT, PayTM & other wallets, Pay Later, and various EMI options. It offers the lowest TDR in India and has the fastest settlement cycle of 24 hours to 48 hours.  Cashfree is among the best free payment gateway for a website in India as it helps to analyze your website’s designation and offers pop-up, iframe, flawless sign-out methods. Moreover, it can also work as an International Payment Gateway.

6. RazorPay:

RazorPay is one of the topmost payment gateways for startups, founded in 2013 with headquarters in Bangalore. It’s super easy to set up and has a simple interface. One can easily collect domestic and international payments and access all payment modes like credit cards, debit cards, net banking, UPI, wallets. It also facilitates end-to-end money movement easier. Another attractive feature about RazorPay is sending customized emails to subscribers, reminding them about future payments or failed transactions. Further, it automates bank transfers, shares invoices, and provides working capital loans for its users.

7. Paypal:

Paypal is a globally recognized and trusted payment gateway. It can undoubtedly be the first choice for startups that expect a large number of international payments. Customers can use PayPal to transfer money to and from a bank account, get the working capital loans, receive payments. It is easy to request and send payments on the platform and allows customers to generate invoices and receipts. It also enables clients to pay in whatever method they want, like debit card, credit card, PayPal, PayPal Credit. Paypal facilitates phone transactions and also helps to integrate with social media accounts.

8. Stripe:

Stripe is a comprehensive payment platform that efficiently works with subscription businesses, brick-and-mortar stores, E-commerce websites, even virtual marketplaces. It facilitates transactions in more local currencies. It also has an isolated infrastructure for storing, transmitting, and decrypting. Stripe boasts of strict security and compliance, so clients need not stress over fraudulent transactions. This gateway makes it conceivable with its AES encryption. There are no setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees for using Stripe. It accepts SEPA Debit, SOFORT, iDEAL, and AliPay. Stripe can help you to reach customers all over the world.

9. Payoneer:

Payoneer is a payment gateway that allows you to receive mass payments from marketplaces and customers all around the globe. It is a swift,  secure, and cheap gateway that gives all the solutions for startups. It gives you an option of automatic fund transfer to your bank account at competitive rates. Compared to other gateways, Payoneer charges lower transaction fees. It supports around 200 countries and 150 local currencies. Once you get your funds from Payoneer, you can channel your funds to your bank account and withdraw them in your local currency.

10. Authorize.net:

Authorize.net is the leading payment gateway that consists of the most simplified payment process, enabling you to accept electronic and credit card payments quickly and efficiently anytime and everywhere. It comes with a free setup and low monthly gateway fees. It supports recurring billing, timely services to its clients, and many payment types like Visa, MasterCard, Amex, JCB. Authorize.net’s other services include simple checkout options, account updater, advanced fraud detection, customer information manager, online invoicing.

Since e-commerce is growing speedily in India, the selection of a good payment gateway is mandatory. Almost all startups have moved over to online payment options to reach out to the global market and make online transactions quick and easy for their customers. A good payment gateway can help to protect your consumers from any safety breaches and ensure a secure transfer of funds from the payment website.  Depending on the number of transactions, security of your site, and pricing, you can choose a gateway that’s best for your startup.

Before starting a new business, you need to organize many things, and having a checklist during this time would be fully useful. Our startup checklist blog discusses six major checklists to consider while launching a startup.

If you have any doubts regarding how to start a new venture, Contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!

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CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is one of the first tools that every startup implements to grow to the next level. CRM refers to the combination of business software, strategies, and processes that helps to build long-lasting relationships between companies and it’s customers. This software ensures that every step of the interaction with customers goes evenly and efficiently to increase overall sales, customer service, and profitability. Some of the CRM features include customer data storage at one place, recording service issues, identifying sales opportunities, managing marketing campaigns. Good CRM software gives a better way to manage external relationships. Here are some best CRM’s for startups:-

1. Keap:

Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is a web-based platform used by startups to focus on what and how to grow sales in business. Started back in 2001, the software integrates with 2500+ apps and also combines CRM, sales, and marketing in one platform without disruption. It helps track marketing pipelines and customer journeys, converts leads into customers, and automates repetitive tasks such as follow-ups, calendar booking, invoicing and payments, and more. Keap implemented its mobile app to capture every communication in one place and add details in every call and text. A 14-day free trial is available for Grow and Pro plans.

2. HUBSPOT:

Hubspot is an easy-to-use, scalable CRM software created to improve inbound marketing and sales, and business growth in all stages. The tool is entirely free so that you can get it without the overhead. The paid version comes with more stable features of CRM. It enables you to manage social media presence and content, track leads, company activities, and profiles, streamline sales funnels, record customer interaction across channels and other digital activities. It integrates with Zapier to share information across Slack, Google sheets, Facebook lead ads, etc. Hubspot offers a discount of up to 90% for eligible startup ventures.

3. STREAK:

Streak is the perfect CRM software for startups since every startup uses G-suite for sending emails, documents, etc. It directly integrates with Gmail so that users can access their work inbox and other tools at all times. Adding, editing, collaborating is as simple as a spreadsheet. It keeps track of leads, close deals, resumes, projects, and tasks to feature completion, schedule and send mass emails, and helps to maintain a business relationship with its partners. Streak offers a personal version free for individual use.

4. SALESFORCE:

Salesforce is the most widely used CRM software by startups that aims to connect companies and customers. It allows multiple features such as quick lead searches, tracking customer details in one place, forecasting sales management, excellent customer services, etc. Over 1,50,000 companies use this software, making a shared view of every customer. It integrates with powerful tools such as Outlook, Zapier and third-party platforms such as Facebook and Google.

5. NUTSHELL:

Nutshell is a sneaky and affordable CRM that offers the most advanced sales automation platform to integrate dozens of popular business software applications. It is a CRM tool that is simple enough for any team and sophisticated enough for any business. It helps sales teams of all sizes optimize their efforts and focus more on building relationships. With Nutshell, sales reps don’t have to worry about dropping a lead or not knowing which one to focus on. In addition to that, Nutshell also offers sales process and collaboration tools, email sync with Gmail and outlook.

6. ZOHO CRM:

Zoho CRM is easy to use with a simple user interface targeted at startups, including social media features, automation, etc. With Zoho CRM, startups can attract and retain customers, distribute personal invitations and undertake Customer Relationship Management at scale. The good thing about Zoho CRM is that it is the best budget-friendly CRM software out there that integrates with Facebook, Twitter, and google+ for reaching out and engaging customers at the right time. It allows users to effectively coordinate prospect information and offers marketing features to track visitors, lead scoring, sales signals.

7. PIPEDRIVE:

Pipedrive is one of the easy-to-use CRM software for startups. It is a flexible and result-oriented CRM designed to help startups get organized. The key idea behind Pipedrive is the sales pipeline. It focuses on the sales pipeline and activities you need to do next to move your leads through it. Pipedrive customizes data fields and workflow for distinct business processes. Pipedrive can access it 24* 7 from anywhere using any web browser or mobile apps. It provides users with excellent team collaboration and lead management. Further, pipeline CRM is well-known for being a simple, clean CRM and ideal for international business companies as it is available in a range of primary and minor currencies.

8. AGILE CRM:

Agile CRM is a full-featured sales CRM that offers its free version to up to 10 users. Startups can easily attach documents to companies, contacts, deals, and email in-app. It also allows social media integrations to publish and respond to post on social channels. Additionally, users can track website visitors to analyze customer behavior and providing them deals and offers according to their requirements. This CRM software integrates marketing automation, contact management, email, and real-time alerts, etc. Agile CRM will automate all upcoming voice calls and follow-ups by sticking an appointment calendar online.

9. INSIGHTLY:

Insightly is a cloud-based, user-friendly CRM platform for tracking contacts, projects, documents in a single interface. It offers excellent categorization and filtering of data and customizable reporting, which means Insightly provides customization options for structuring and assessing customers’ data and records, including capturing customized data, display, and validation. It integrates easily with other leading business systems such as Gmail, Outlook, Mailchimp, Evernote. Users can access Insightly on other platforms such as IOS, Android.

10. COPPER:

Copper is formerly known as ProsperWorks CRM. It is an easy-to-use and comprehensive CRM tool for startups that need a better way to manage leads and grow customer relationships. It integrates with Gmail and other Google apps. You can see information from all your email threads, past interaction all in one place. Copper reminds you to reach out to contacts and follow up deals. It also gains absolute data protection and security control through regular user access review, data encryption, vulnerability testing, etc.

One of the biggest challenges for startups is growth. CRM for startups is considered a powerful tool that caters to the particular needs of companies in the early stages of development. Hence, the importance of maintaining CRM is not an easier thing to neglect because, without customers, the startups will not make money and cannot exist. Get in touch with us for any query regarding the best CRM for startups. We will be ready to help at the earliest.

There are few free tools to smooth out the workflow process more efficiently. 12 major free tools for startup help you to know more about free tools that help you.

12 MAJOR FREE TOOLS FOR STARTUPS

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The food sector never goes out of style as everybody needs to eat multiple times a day. It has always been a booming industry for innovation and lively space that attracts passionate entrepreneurs to discover new ideas and build successful brands. In India, many startups are trying to attract customer’s hearts literally through their bellies. Food startups should build technological processes to create innovative food products and ensure delicious and nutritious food. Here are the few best food startups in India:-

1. FreshMenu:

FreshMenu was founded by Rashmi Daga (CEO) in 2014 with its headquarters in Bangalore.  It is a delivery service provider made with the finest ingredients, namely farm fresh vegetables, fresh dairy, and meat products, and without trying to do re-heated and assembled food. It aims to deliver fresh food, including breakfast platters, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, Thalis, Continental dishes, Biriyani, dessert. The startup has raised USD 24 M in funds from investors. Currently, FreshMenu operates in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Gurgaon. They used to change their menu daily and deliver freshly prepared meals in just 45 mins at the customer’s doorstep.

2. Box 8:

Anshul Gupta and Amit Raj (IIT graduates) founded the Mumbai-based startup named- Box eight in 2012 as a small outlet in a corporate cafeteria. They prepare and deliver hot desi meals in wholesome boxes under 40 minutes at pocket-friendly prices. It offers desi-mixed food varieties like all-in-one meals, desi openers, biriyani, desserts, steak meals, salads, sandwiches, curries, paratha wraps, and more. They too offer meals late in the night till 1 am. Box 8 provides an online platform to browse through menus and place orders for delivery. It serves almost 22,000 meals across 100+ outlets in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Gurgaon.

3. Inner chef:

Inner Chef was founded in 2015 by three entrepreneurs, with its headquarters is situated in Gurugram. It is an Indian food tech company that focuses on both discovery and delivery through a mobile app. Inner Chef works in 2 ways -” Ready to eat” and “ready to cook.” “Ready to eat” is suitable for professionals who are always busy with their work, and “Ready to cook” is ideal for those who cook without the hassle of the cooking process. It also offers its users to order their favorite dishes, delivered within 20 minutes. In addition to that, they also supply detox cleanses and detox diets with soups, juices, freshly prepared salads. Inner chef operates in Hyderabad, Noida, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, and Gurgaon.

4. Faasos:

Founded by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee in 2004 and later incorporated in 2011. Faasos (also called food on demand) is an online food ordering industry owned by Rebel Foods. It operates in more than 15 major cities in India, with its headquarters at Pune. The company aims to provide a wide range of food items such as wraps, rolls, Frankies, rice bowls, meals, desserts, snacks. Faasos takes online orders and gets them delivered in no time. This food startup is a perfect example food chain that went from online to offline. Food aggregators like Zomato, Swiggy, FoodPanda are the direct competitors of Faasos.

5. Dine out:

Founded in 2012 by Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Sahil Jain, and Nikhil Bakshi, Dineout is the largest dining platform headquartered at NewDelhi. The features include discovering safe and hygienic restaurants, get great discounts and offers, home delivery and takeaway, hassle-free reservations, pay restaurant bills to earn cashback. It has more than 2.5 M diners/month, listing over 35,000 restaurants in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore.

6. Biriyani By Kilo:

In 2015, Kaushik Roy and Vishal Jindal started Biriyani By Kilo (BBK) with Gurugram as its headquarters. As the name suggests, it prepares and delivers biriyanis to the masses, and the varieties of biriyani include Hyderabadi biriyani, Lucknow biriyani, Kolkata biriyani. Each biriyani is made using natural clay handis and prepared in traditional dum style. Further, it provides a celebration menu, curries, kebabs, Metta, beverages, and drinks with authentic taste and flavors. It has received excellent responses from its customers since its inception.

7. Zomato:

Zomato was started in 2008 by Pankaj Chaddah and Deepinder Goyal, headquarters located in Gurgaon (Haryana). It is a multinational restaurant discovery website and an online food ordering app available in 10 different languages. Zomato is the first food tech unicorn in India that connects customers, restaurant partners, and delivery partners to fulfill their multiple needs. Customers use this app to search and discover nearby restaurants, online ordering, table reservations. They provide industry-based marketing tools to restaurant partners to acquire more customers and also transparent job opportunities to delivery partners. It is focused on offering better food for more people before dining out. The company has received funding of over USD 600 M from investors.

8. Swiggy:

Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini founded Swiggy in 2014, with headquarter’s located in Bangalore. It is one of the best food ordering and delivery companies in India. The delivery is super fast and provides free delivery on huge orders. The food delivered is fresh and online, which makes it stand apart. Customers can also track their orders in real-time. It takes around 40,000 orders per day. The company name of Swiggy is Bundle Technologies Private Limited. Zomato, TinyOwl, Foodpanda are the core competitors of this company.

9. Swadhika foods:

Swarnamugi R Karthik founded Swadhika Foods in the year 2015, with its headquarters located in Chennai. It is one of the leading suppliers and exporter of fine quality frozen cut fruits and vegetables and frozen ready-to-eat/cook foods, offering customized packing delivery according to International Standards and facilitates modern research and development. The products are 100% natural and free from preservatives and synthetic colors. The startup also represents product innovation, quality, freshness, and commitment to excellence and focuses on building a good relationship with customers based on theirs needs.

10. Hunger Box:

Hunger Box is Bangalore headquartered company founded by Sandipan Mitra and Uttam Kumar in 2016. It is a full-stack B2B and F&B (Food and Beverage) company that brings together food vendors, the company, and its employees in a single platform. It offers safe and healthy office food and cafeteria management for corporate employees. Almost 6,00,000 orders are processed every day among 23 cities. The company provides a customized platform for users to see the live food menu, order food, pay through digital modes and send feedback.

Food startups have revolutionized the way Indians consume food. People are constantly making good food choices that are tasty, healthy, and helps them stay fit. With people including a better lifestyle, the food startups are flourishing at the same time. An entrepreneur may lack critical insights and knowledge to execute the desired results. Book a moment with our experts to discuss your startup ideas. We ensure you get a complete service package with 100% satisfaction.

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The Capital of India, Delhi, is a city of people having contented hearts and lively nature. Being one of the favorite places of new businesses in the country, Delhi has a blend of small and enormous companies. Currently, Delhi has more than 1,500 startups that are growing successfully and providing satisfaction to its customers. In this article, you will get to know about the best startups in Delhi.

1. Snapdeal:

Snapdeal is an e-commerce-based company founded by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in 2010. Earlier it was started as an offline couponing business and later expanded as an online marketplace in 2011. The company offers multi-category products relating to men’s and women’s fashion, mobiles, tablets, computers, books, beauty products, sports and fitness products,  daily needs, real estate, and many more.  It has a network of 3 lakh + sellers covering 6000+ cities and towns in India. They connect millions of buyers and sellers in a single platform by providing their favorite products with amazing discounts and offers and quick product delivery at customer’s doorsteps. Ali baba, Ratan Tata, SoftBank, Venture Partners, Black Rock, Intel Capital are some of the top investors of Snapdeal. Snapdeal app is available for Android and Apple users.

2. ixamBee:

The Delhi startup named ixamBee was started by Chandraprakash Joshi in 2017 and later joined by Arunima Sinha and Sandeep Singh. He believed that big cities and towns have greater access to learning solutions for competitive exams (banking and insurance exams, RRB, SSC, MAT, railways.), but it still wants in the case of small villages. So he decided to design an ed-tech platform especially for students living in remote areas. It conducts test series and free mock tests using text messages, audio clips, and video formats. All the study materials are designed and prepared by educational experts, ensuring better results in the most optimized manner. It also allows students to interact with their experts in clearing doubts and seamlessly provide exam-related tips and tricks.

3. Awfis:

Amit Ramani founded Awfis in 2015. It is a fully tech-based platform that supplies co-working spaces to startups, corporates, freelancers based on their office space, city, location, preferences. Users can book private cabins, Wifi, desk, printing, meeting rooms and order them through web/mobile app. It offers a well-equipped business environment where people can interact and share their ideas. The company currently operates in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Gurgaon, New Delhi.

4. Chaayos:

Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma initiated Chaayos in 2012, based on the online delivery of tea service. Since its central theme is based on “Experiments with Chai,” Chaayos is specially meant for all “Chai freaks.” It offers almost 25 tea varieties such as Pahadi chai, Irani chai, camomile, and Moroccan mint tea(International tea). The company focuses on providing a cup of delicious tea at a reasonable price, straight to your desk. It currently operates in Mumbai, Noida, Delhi, and Gurgaon.

 5. Revfin:

Sameer Agarwal founded a finTech named Revfin in 2018. The aim is to create the most advanced digital platform, providing two types of loans: Regular personal loans and Revloan. A regular personal loan is taken for various personal uses and repaid in installments whereas, Revloan is applied for a considerable loan amount and can repay from anywhere or anytime according to the user’s convenience. They can select the loan that suits their need, and the best part is that they can get money in their account within minutes using the digital application process.

6. 3Hcare:

In 2016, Ruchi Gupta, Dr. Gurdeep Singh Ratra, and Dr. Ravindra Pal Singh Malhotra founded a Delhi-based startup named 3Hcare to provide the best healthcare services. Currently, it offers two types of services:- Diagnostics and Plan my surgery (patients can plan their surgeries with best-in-class surgeons at a feasible cost). Patients can log into the website and discover diagnostics clinics and hospitals quickly. The company has raised angel funding of INR 65, used to develop IT infrastructure and other services within 11 months of opening its company.

7. Lenskart:

Lenskart is the largest eyewear company founded by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, and Sumeet Kapahi in 2010. It offers high-quality eyewear (for men, women, and kids according to their eye power), contact lenses, sunglasses, computer glasses at affordable prices. Ray-ban, Johnson & Johnson, Oakley, Tag Heuer, Bausch & Lomb are some of the eyewear brands provided by them. Further, it extends the services of free eye check-ups and frame trials at the customer’s home/office. The company aims to access eyewear without the need of retailers for a clearer vision of every Indian.

8. GoldSeat:

GoldSeat is a media-tech platform founded by Gaurav Kapahi and Nishchal Khetarpal in 2016. It presents offline entertainment to long-distance bus travelers in two ways: free high-speed Wi-fi to passengers until the last mile. Secondly, a vast collection of movies (200+ movies) by either downloading the GoldSeat app on their mobile phones or through GoldSeat screen installed in the bus. Further, it offers a service line called GoldLiv that ensures passenger’s safety, control, and live features through cameras. The app currently operates in states like Haryana, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka.

9. Ship Rocket:

Ship Rocket is India’s best e-commerce shipping company founded by Saahil Goal, Gautum Kapoor, and Vishesh Khurana in 2012. It’s a platform where customers can upload orders in bulk from the best courier company, track orders, and get delivery of their products faster and at the lowest shipping rates. It connects e-retailers, logistics companies, and customers in a single panel to create a better shipping experience. Further, it enables International shipping with best-in-class support and reduced shipping errors.  The company integrates with 17 courier partners (including Blue Dart, Ecom Express, XpressBees, FedEx, Delhivery) and delivers to 2,20 countries having 35,000 orders on a daily basis. Warehousing and packing services are the other benefits provided by them.

10. Green Cure Wellness:

Sanchit Garg founded Green cure wellness in 2015, which produces herbal personal and healthcare products (for eye care, skincare, respiratory care, pain relief, better sleep) formulated by German Scientists and Ayurveda experts. They ensure whether the products are helpful for Indians and are of International quality. The products are safe and effective in the first use itself as it contains scientifically proven ingredients free from paraben, mineral oil, paraffin, synthetic colors, PPG, PEG, EDTA, EO.

Delhi has rapidly grown as a startup hub in India. The Delhi startups, as mentioned above, are running seamlessly and creating a market presence over the years. Are you starting a new business? Why not get the assistance of professional experts? Scaalex is an ideal startup funding and consulting platform with a full-fledged team of domain strategists, funding advisory, and financial experts.  Let’s get connected to experience better results.

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Investment Bank is a financial institution that helps individuals, entities, or governments raise capital and provide financial consultancy services. They act as an intermediary between investors and companies/startups. An investment banker assists startups in raising funds to start their business and helps investors find opportunities for investment simultaneously. Apart from finding capital, it supports startups in preparing business plans and pitch decks and entering the gateway of the capital market. Let’s look at the top investment banking companies in India:

1. Axis Capital Limited:

Axis capital limited is one of the leading investment banks and equity houses in India. Earlier it was formerly known as Erstwhile Enam Securities Private Limited. Founded in 2005, and its headquarters in Mumbai. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Axis bank(the largest private sector bank). It aims to provide focused and customized solutions in institutional equities and investment banking areas. It offers companies, investors, and government entities a wide range of financial services in Private Equity, Equity Capital Markets, Merger, and acquisitions, Institutional equities. Additionally, it extends its services through subsidiaries and branch networks in Singapore, the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and  Europe. The vision is to emerge as the most trusted solution provider, expand their geographical reach, and be a leader of tomorrow’s India by revenue, market share, and profitability. The authorized and paid-up capital of the company stands at 17,500 lakhs and 7,350 lakhs, respectively.

2. Avendus Capital:

Avendus Capital is a leading financial service company that offers tailor-made solutions to asset management, wealth management, credit transactions, and investment banking—founded in 1999 with its headquarters in Mumbai. Avendus brings together ideas, innovation, and people to help high-performing entrepreneurs, wealth creators, leaders of the new-age economy to accomplish their dreams. The firm also provides strategic advice and Merger and acquisition advisory services to large global organizations. The wholly-owned subsidiaries of Avendus capital include Avendus Capital Incorporation and Avendus Capital Private Limited, located in New York and London, respectively.

3. Edelweiss Financial Services Limited (EFSL):

Edelweiss Financial Service Limited was a part of Edelweiss Group, founded by Rashesh Shah and Venkat Ramaswami in 1995. India’s leading financial service companies, Edelweiss, provide a spectrum of financial services to a substantial client base, including corporations, institutions, and individuals. They provide various assistance, including credit facilities, franchise and advisory business (Asset Management, Wealth Management, and Capital markets), and Insurance (General and Life Insurance). Credit facilities comprise both retail and corporate credit business, including SME and business loans, Agri and rural finance, wholesale mortgages, distressed credit. Centrum India and SMC Finance are the main competitors of Edelweiss.

4. JM Finacial Institution Securities:

JM Financial Institution Securities was established in 1998 with its headquarters in Mumbai. They provide all-in-one investment financial services comprising Investment banking, wealth management (fee and fund based activities), Asset management (mutual fund business), Mortgage lending (retail mortgage lending and wholesale mortgage lending), Distressed Credit (Asset reconstruction business). The company works with high net worth individuals, big corporations, and retail investors. They are notable for their private equity services in the business.

5. ICICI Securities Limited(I-Sec):

ICICI Securities Limited is a subsidiary of ICICI Bank Ltd. It began its operations in 1995 with its headquarters in Mumbai.  It is an integrated technology-based firm that conveys advisory services to corporations, financial institutions, and retail investors. Some of the company’s assistance comprises Investment banking, Institutional broking, Retail broking, Wealth management, placement of IPO. The company is the largest e-brokerage business in India. The company offers a spectrum of products and services in derivatives, equities, research, and advisory services, including equity portfolio advisory, financial planning, retirement planning, and estate planning.

6. IDBI Capital:

IDBI Capital was formerly known as IDBI Capital Market Services Limited. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDBI Bank, incorporated in 1993. It is an investment banking company that offers a perfect bundle of services and products, including capital market products, Fund management, Private equity, Underwriting, and debt replacement. They aim to maintain integrity and transparency to guide their vision to have an International presence and work cohesively with passion and commitment towards the benefits of customers they serve.

7. O3 Capital Global Advisory Services:

03 Capital is a mid-market investment bank formed in 1993, specialized in providing strategic and financial advice to the retail, institutional and corporate clients. The company focuses on corporate finance and alternate asset management as its core business. They provide unbiased and tailored solutions to different industrialists, healthcare, life science, and financial services. Avendus Capital is the edge-to-edge competitor of O3 capital.

8. Veda Corporate Advisors:

Veda Corporate Advisors is the largest Chennai-based investment banking firm, founded in 2003. The firm assists clients in mergers and acquisitions, buyouts, venture capital, joint venture, private equity. Further, it serves real estate, health care, media, infrastructure, financial services. The company authorized and paid-up capital stands at 2,50,000 and 1,34,420, respectively.

9. Spark Capital:

Spark Capital-founded in 2001, with its headquarters located in Bangalore. It is one of the prime mid-market investment banks that connect with financial services encompassing Investment Banking, Fixed Income Advisory, Wealth Advisory, and Institutional Equities. Customer satisfaction is the core objective, thereby maintaining a sustainable and long-term relationship with clients. Sectors, where they built considerable transaction experience, are fintech, healthcare, commerce, infrastructure, and media. Spark Capital managed to be on the League table all time.

10. Unitus Capital:

Unitus Capital is the first established Impact-based Investment Banking Company in India. It was founded in 2008, having Bangalore as its Headquarters. It is engaged in services including Private Equity, Corporate Advisory, Debt finance, Structured product. Since its incorporation, it is committed to delivering top-rated capital raising and advisory services to local and international investors to benefit businesses and create a positive impact on society and the environment. Agriculture, education, healthcare, financial inclusion are the sectors where they serviced the most.

11. Mape Advisory Group:

Maps Advisory Group, formed in 2001, is a leading investment bank focused on Private Equity and Merger and Acquisition advisory starting from origination to closure. It has been consistently ranked top 10 investment in India. A team of senior investment bankers founds them to help their clients identify and implement effective transaction strategies. Nevertheless, they work with India’s most prominent industries across Telecom, Technology, Healthcare, financial services, Engineering.

12. Ambit Corporate Finance:

Ambit is one of the premier independent investment banks formed in 2006. It provides capital and financial advice to its clients, say, high net worth individuals, self-employed individuals, corporates, institutions, Small and Medium Enterprises. The firm concentrated on furnishing customized solutions that are appropriate to their client’s needs. It consists of 6 core business groups: Asset Management, Corporate Finance, Equity Capital Market, Institutional Equities and Research, Global Private Clients, and Non-Banking Finance Company.

Investment banks are genuinely the most demanded sector these days because they focus on managing and increasing clients’ financial needs, thereby helping them grow their business. A good investment banker knows the best ways to raise funds by adding more creative ideas to economic models. If you are looking for the best investors for funding your startups -Let’s get connected because” we make startup funding possible”.

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Lack of finance is the main limitation in the infrastructural sector in India. The Government recognizes that infrastructure requires a significant investment that the public cannot finance alone. Also, it cannot be financially viable because of long capital investment requirements, long gestation period, and small revenue flows in the future. For this purpose, the Government decided to implement a new scheme named-“Viability Gap Funding” (VGF), formed in 2004, administered by the Ministry of Finance (Nirmala Seetharaman). It aims to complete the infrastructure projects successfully that are economically justified but fall short of financial unviable. A Plan Scheme had designed for this fund, and the budget amount is made on a year-to-year basis.

Earlier, the scheme was limited to economic infrastructure projects only. Later, In 2006, The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved for revamping or updating the VGF scheme as “the Scheme for Financial Support to Public-Private Participation (PPP),” extended over five years (till Financial Year 2024-2025). PPP refers to a project based on a contract between Government and a Statutory entity or private sector company for supporting infrastructure services. The new scheme encouraged both social and economic infrastructure projects. It aims to support projects that come under PPP and facilitate private sector investment in social infrastructure.

Further, the revamped scheme becomes operative within one month of Cabinet Approval,  financed from budgetary support of the Ministry of Finance. A total outlay of 8,100 crores for investment was predicted, out of which 6,000 crores was set apart for PPP projects in the economic infrastructure division and the remaining 2,100 crores for social infrastructure projects. In short, the VGF scheme is a one-time or deferred grant to support infrastructure projects that comes under Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).

List of sectors under VGF Scheme:

  • Health and education development.
  • Roads, railways, seaports, airports, bridges etc
  • Oil and gas pipelines
  • Electricity
  • Irrigation
  • Soil testing laboratories
  • Terminal markets
  • Water supply, sewerage, and solid waste management
  • Telecommunication (Fixed Network)
  • Telecommunication towers
  • Infrastructure projects in Special Economic Zones(SEZ).
  • Capital investment in the creation of modern storage capacity(including cold chains and post-harvest storage)
  • Common infrastructure in agriculture markets

 Objectives:

  • To attract and promote more PPP’s in social and economic infrastructure, thereby making essential projects viable.
  • To facilitate investment in social sectors such as education, health, water supply, wastewater, solid waste management.
  • Building new hospitals and schools generate more job opportunities, especially in remote areas.
  • The new scheme will be beneficial to the public as it helps develop the country’s infrastructure.
  • It focuses on integrating private participation of social sectors.

Applicability and Eligibility:

  • Within 30 days of receipt of the project proposal, Empowered Committee shall inform the Government/Statutory Entity about the eligibility of projects for VGF.
  • It can be only applicable to PPP projects proposed by Central Government/Central ministries/Statutory Entities as the case may be.
  • The project shall be implemented (developed, financed, constructed, maintained for the project term) by a Private Sector Company for funding.
  • The project should provide service against payment of a pre-determined tariff or user charges.
  • A private sector company shall be eligible only if selected through open and transparent competitive bidding.
  • The proposal will be applicable only if the contract/concession is awarded in favor of a private sector company.

Funding:

  • Funds shall be invited by concerned State government/Central Ministries/Statutory Entities in the form of the capital grant within four months of the approval of the Empowered Committee. The period may be extended by the Department of Economic Affairs, if necessary.
  • State Government/statutory entity/Ministry will restrict funding to 20% of the Total Project Cost if the sponsoring State Government/Statutory Entity/Ministry aims to provide assistance over and above the stipulated amount under VGF.

Disbursement of Grants:

  • The VGF grant will be disbursed at the construction stage only if the private sector company has subscribed and expended the equity contribution required for the project.
  • After the recommendation of the sponsoring authority, the Empowered Authority can release the grant to an escrow account.
  • The Empowered Committee, lead financial institution, and Private Sector Company shall enter into a tripartite agreement as prescribed by Empowered Committee from time to time.

Monitoring:

A lead financial institution (refers to the financial institution funding the PPP projects)  shall send regular monitoring and evaluation of projects for the disbursal of VGF and quarterly progress reports to the Empowered Committee.

The revamped VGF has two components:

1. Sub scheme 1:

  • 30% of the Total Project Cost (TPC) of the project is treated as VGF by the Central Government. Statutory entity/Central Ministry/State Government also provides additional support for funding (up to 30% of TPC).
  • Eligibility:

It mainly focuses on catering social sector projects such as Health, education, water supply, wastewater treatment, solid waste management.  These projects may face poor revenue streams and bankability issues to serve fully capital costs, and also projects should have at least 100% operational cost recovery.

 2. Sub scheme 2:

  • This scheme supports demonstration/pilot social sector projects. Central and State Government provides up to 80% of capital expenditure and 50% of Operation and Maintenance(O&M) for VGF over the first five years.
  • Eligibility:

The projects should come from the Health and Education sectors with a minimum of 50% Operational cost recovery.

64 projects have been accorded ‘final approval’ with a Total Project Cost of INR 34,288 crore and VGF of INR 5,639 crore since the inception of the scheme. VGF of INR 4,375 has been disbursed till the end of the financial year 2019-2020.

VGF Scheme is used to finance infrastructure projects. Not only infrastructure projects but almost all sectors of our economy also require funds to operate successfully. That’s why they seek the help of investment banks to raise funds effectively before launching their business. Are you considering a new business? Do you need funding? Drop a mail or fill-up the form below to get assistance right from the start.

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Launching a startup can be an expensive endeavour. Some of its expenses include registering the domain and business name, getting a server, research expenses, business plan. Finding the right tools can be tricky, especially when time and resources are limited. One such way is by taking advantage of free startup tools whenever possible. Here are 12 free tools that can help you.

1. Trello:

Internal communication, project collaboration, and management are vital for every successful startup. You can get all these things in one place using Trello. It is a leading online SAAS that allows users to visually organize their tasks and manage their work effectively with team members. In one look, Trello tells you what work to do, which work is in process, and how many jobs are already done. Moreover, it offers other features like posting regular business updates, redesigning websites, working on complex projects with many participants, and many more.

2. Hootsuite:

Hootsuite is the most popular social media marketing tool for startups. It is used to manage multiple social media profiles from just one dashboard and helps you to save time and update. It makes scheduling, managing, and reporting social media content more accessible. Further, it facilitates user interaction by responding to every incoming message directed at multiple social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn in a single stream. To gain more new customers and stay competitive in the market, it is essential to stay connected with social media. So, Hootsuite is a must-have.

3. MailChimp:

MailChimp is an all-in-one marketing campaign tool used to create sign-up forms and campaigns, landing pages, Facebook and Instagram ads. Its user interface is easy to use, which allows sending almost 12,000 emails to 20,000 subscribers. Some of its features include easy personalization, retargeting, impressive templates, making the software a good option for startups. Nevertheless, it let you learn more about your audience, target them precisely so that you can build a good relationship with them. 

4. Canva:

A startup needs to create graphics for its website, blogs, and social media in most cases. It’s when Canva comes into the picture. Canva is a graphic design platform that holds around a million fonts, photos, and icons. It enables the creation of visual content convenient, faster, and better. With the accessible version of canvas, uploading, adding, and creating photos is an easier task. Using drag and drop functionality and layout, users can choose thousands of templates and create impressive business cards, presentations, graphics, reports, resumes, wallpaper, and many more.

5. Zoom:

The Covid 19 situation has forced many companies to allow their employees to work from home. There are a lot of apps available out there which can help you with video calls. But the best among them is Zoom. Zoom is a reliable cloud-based video communication app. The main features include unlimited one-on-one meetings, screen sharing, recording, and hosting video conferences (up to 100 participants for 40 minutes). Anyone can access this platform as it is well-suited with Mac, Windows, Android, IOS.

6. Zapier:

Zapier is a tool used to integrate web apps and automate the most crucial business processes. It connects over 3,000 popular apps like Slack, Convertkit, Google docs without coding. It creates an infinite number of workflows. Zapier can use it to connect information between 2 or more app that you use without coding. Instead of copy-paste option, you can create Zapier workflow (Zaps) to do work automatically, saving time and effort. Startups can take advantage of thousands of free automation provided by Zapier.

7. Calendly:

Without proper management, scheduling events, meetings, conference calls seems to be a headache for everyone. Here comes the need for Calendly, which is free and convenient. It’s a free scheduling app that keeps track of everything based on your availability. With Calendly, you can decide when you’re available to take calls during the week and set daily meeting limits. One of the best part of this tool is that it integrates with other apps such as Gmail, Hubspot, Paypal, and so many more.

8. Google analytics:

Google Analytics is one of the best free SEO tools for startups. The web analytics service offered by Google tracks website traffic and helps you establish a highly ranked website. With Google Analytics, it is easy to figure out where your traffic is coming out and how your app users and site engage with your content. Since Analytics works with Google advertising and publisher products, startups can connect their insights to reach out right customers to know more about their customers. 

9. Wave:

Most startups and small businesses use free accounting software named Wave. This software enables you to manage the financial aspects of your business. It also helps to create and send professional invoices with advanced features like automatic payments and recurring billing. Everything is automated, so it saves a lot of time and effort involved in these procedures. Instead of hiring an entrepreneur, startups can use Wave to track their expenses more easily. This app is also available in the mobile version so that you can quickly view all your invoices and receipts.

10. Freshdesk:

Freshdesk is an online platform for intuitive and collaborative customer service with intelligent automation features. It offers 30 days free trial for startups without having to enter the credit details. With Freshdesk, it’s easier to solve customer’s problems from ticketing and phone to messaging apps and social media. Further, it enables companies of all sizes to connect and deliver customer experience across all traditional and digital support channels.  Its top features include email ticketing, social ticketing, Ticket dispatch, Ticket trend report,  team collaboration.

11. Aha:

Aha is free roadmap software used to build excellent strategies for developing your business. Since startups are lean and tight on cash during their early stages, Aha provides a clear product vision and strategy, product collaboration, define business goals, and requirements to achieve it. It is specifically designed for startups to allocate budget and track ROI to those areas they need the most. Additionally, it facilitates initiatives to get into action simply and quickly.

12. Slack:

Slack is top of mind for many startups. It is a messaging tool where teams can communicate via direct messaging and dedicated channels throughout the workday. With Slack, you can make quick phone or video calls with few clicks of the mouse, share files through Slack’s file integration, ensures data security, and access the screen sharing feature directly through its platform. It also promotes office culture among remote workers. The tool integrates with several apps like Google Docs, Dropbox, Zapier, and salesforce. In short, Slack covers most of the things your startup needs to function correctly.

As a new venture, there is much to get done and consider. Free tools help them to smooth out the workflow process more efficiently. Use them wisely to quickly drive your startups to develop and grow better in the future. If you seek any doubts regarding tools for startups, talk to our experts and find out which tool is right for you and your business.